High season means Chamber’s in high gear

Friday

Aug 3, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Summer on Cape Cod always brings some interesting and welcomed visitors – and 2012 is no exception.

Wendy Northcross

Summer on Cape Cod always brings some interesting and welcomed visitors – and 2012 is no exception. We are happy to report this year’s occupancy rates (at taxed hotels, motels, B&Bs) are on the upswing, with June showing a nearly 10 percent increase compared to last year. This is important, as the more than $1.2 billion dollars spent directly by our guests trickles through our economy at least five times before it leaks out. A good summer will keep many a Cape Codder warm all winter.

Some of the reasons we are having a strong high season includes media coverage generated by our wildlife. Last winter’s dolphin strandings, the visit from a rambunctious bear, and the return of great white sharks to the shores of the Atlantic side of the Cape have generated a tremendous amount of media coverage for Cape Cod across the globe. In general, we feel there is no such thing as bad press, and coverage for Cape Cod about our natural environment has been good for business. Of course, the Cape Cod Chamber is careful to avoid appearing like the Chamber in the movie Jaws, and has worked to disseminate factual information to keep guests safe and aware of their beach surroundings. Fortunately, we have over 559 miles of shoreline to offer – leaving the remote Monomoy beaches to the seals and their predators. At this writing, reports of mosquitoes bearing EEE have us gnashing our teeth – and advising liberal use of bug repellant.

In terms of non-tourism-related business, August guests are being targeted in a very specific way by a radio message from the SmarterCape Partnership. This message is telling our visitors that high-speed broadband is being built here, and that Cape Cod is open for business. We are inviting those who work hard all year just to spend a month or two on the Cape to consider our new capabilities and think about stretching that to 12 months by locating their business here. High-speed broadband is not unusual in the world right now – but combined with our unparalleled quality of life, we think we have a compelling message.

Speaking of compelling messages, we applaud Senate President Therese Murray and the Mass DOT administration for announcing last week that all future Route 6 road construction will only be conducted at night. The beauty of this statement is that it is a very easy message for drivers to remember, and one we are hopeful the US Army Corps will embrace for future bridge work contracts. The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce released a Cape Cod Road and Bridge Work Bill of Rights in June of this year. We thank our state leadership for taking it to heart. The canal bridges and our single interstate highway are the Cape’s lifelines.

We have been speaking to community groups this spring, and have been floating the idea of asking the Army Corps to return control of the canal bridges to Cape Codders – allowing us to rebuild new structures and maintain the bridges ourselves. This could be done via bonding, paid for by establishing an at-highway-speed toll system. By the time new bridges are built a “few” years from now, we believe that transponder toll technology will be imbedded in vehicle windshields and used in greater numbers as the EZ Pass system continues to spread throughout the country. A revenue stream from tolls could build new structures, pay for maintenance, and once paid off, could be reverted to other county needs (education, water quality, transit.) We are finding this idea being rather well accepted – especially if there is a provision for Cape Codders to get a free pass for so many crossings! Obviously, there is traffic flow planning and new bridge design work yet to be done – but the general idea is to not wait until the U.S. Army Corps has the resources to figure this out. Your thoughts on this matter are welcomed!